


Language Isn't Always a Barrier

by Tshilaba



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-05
Updated: 2015-09-05
Packaged: 2018-04-19 07:26:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4737764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tshilaba/pseuds/Tshilaba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When you're stuck in a room, it's always nice to be able to understand who you're with. But sometimes that isn't always possible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Language Isn't Always a Barrier

He sighed and rubbed his temples. This was why he didn't come to the library. Everything was done electronically anymore. It was insane.

The clerk apologized for the error on the overdue letter (Error? It was only five days late. An "error" would have been charging for the book instead of the five dollar late charge. Not charging sixteen hundred dollars.) and slipped out of the room to talk to the accountant.

"I hate computers," he muttered under his breath. The only other person in the office with him was a thin, bespectacled brunette immersed in something on the screen of her smartphone.

He glared at a spot on the wall before a rumbling reached his ears and he had to jump away from the desk as a piece of the ceiling fell onto the counter.

Instinct kicked in and he was soon under the counter, the brunette following him wordlessly, her brown eyes wide behind her glasses. Normally, he would have complained about the stranger touching, but it was the only safe spot in the room.

"Okay," he muttered, crawling out from under the desk. "I won't insult computers anymore...fuck."

One of the beams from the ceiling had fallen in front of the door.

He sighed and walked over to it, trying to open the door even a little. No good. It wouldn't budge. "Hey, come help me move this so we can get out." No response. He looked over his shoulder to see that she was staring up at the ceiling. "Hey." He grabbed her wrist and tugged it. When her attention snapped to him, he said "Help me move this," before starting to pull on the beam again.

After a moment, she started to pull on it as well, before he realized the condition of the ceiling. "Hey, stop, the ceiling's falling."

She didn't seem to be listening, pulling harder and harder.

He yanked her away and whirled her around, shaking her. "Why aren't you listening? Are you deaf? I said the ceiling was falling, see?" He pointed to the ceiling.

Her eyes followed his finger and then widened behind the lenses of her glasses. She looked back at him and waved her hands.

"...shit. You can't hear me, can you?"

She waved her hands between them. No...it wasn't waving. She was _signing_.

But he didn't _know_ sign language.

"Can you read lips?"

Another sign, sharp and fast, almost like she was getting as frustrated as he already felt.

He sighed and turned away, toward the counter. She had to be able to read if she went to a public library. After a moment, he found some paper and a pencil, but as soon as he started to write, she grabbed his arm and started to shake it. "Stop it, I'm try--" She jerked his arm just enough to snap the lead. "Now you broke the pencil. What do you want?" he said in exasperation.

In response, she stuck a library card under his nose.

He frowned. "It's your library card. What about it?"

She all but slammed it into his face.

He pushed it back so his eyes could focus. "...you can only read lips in Greek. Well, that's just fucking _marvelous_ considering I don't know any."

She pulled a pen out of her pocket and sketched something out, writing a few words above it.

It was shaky, and he couldn't tell if it was because of a limited knowledge or she just had shitty handwriting.

"I don't know Greek," he said again.

She rolled her eyes and slammed her hands on the counter.

"I mean, I know what a gyro is."

Her eyes lit up.

"Gyro?"

She signed something.

"Um... Athena? Hellenic?"

She was spelling something. But she was getting so excited that her fingers moved through at least three signs in just a few seconds and she was only getting faster.

"I can't understand you. That's all I know. For all I know you're speaking gibberish."

She slapped her hands together and started signing again.

"I can't fucking understand you! And you can only lipread Greek. How the fuck are we supposed to communicate?"

She huffed angrily and then snapped her thumb against the upper row of her teeth.

"Now _that_ I understand..."

She rolled her eyes just as another quake shook the room.

He let her huddle against his side as they hid under the counter again. They couldn't communicate through the language barrier, but they could certainly understand fear.

There was nothing to do but wait.

-

They'd finally been pulled out a few hours later and checked for injuries. They were cleared, but no one seemed to be able to understand her until a young man with sandy blond hair came jogging over.

"I'm her friend," he told the medics. "I can call her emergency contact."

"Yeah, whatever," the medic said. "None of us can speak Greek, but they're both free to go whenever."

"Yeah, sorry." The man exchanged a few signs with the brunette before he turned and made a soft sound of surprise. "I'm Moblit. You must be the young man who was stuck in the room with her."

"Levi," he answered, nodding. "Is she all right?"

"Zoe?" Moblit said. "Oh, yeah, she's fine. Um, will you sit with her for a few minutes? I need to call her sister."

"Sure." He took her hand and led her a few feet away from the chaos to a doorstep where she flopped down onto the steps. He leaned back against the brick railing and sighed.

The neighborhood was a wreck. Some of the houses were collapsed in on themselves, but thankfully no one seemed seriously injured.

It was probably the first time Levi had ever been grateful to see children outside.

He heard a voice cry out and looked up to see a brunette running over to them; she looked remarkably like Zoe. A sister?

The girl was saying something in a language he couldn't understand until Zoe grabbed her wrist, shaking her hand, and signed something.

"Oh. Oh! My apologies, sir," the young woman said, dropping into fluent German. "I didn't realize you didn't speak Greek. You must be the guy Moblit said was with her."

"That'd be me, yeah."

"I'm Sasha, Zoe's sister."

"Levi."

"I tell her not to go out by herself, but you can't tell Zoe anything." He noticed that she signed as she spoke, and realized it must have been for her sister's benefit. "Normally I'm with her, so things like this don't happen. But I had errands to run on the other side of town. And Moblit said he was working today, so I thought it would be okay. I'm sorry she caused you so much trouble."

"Trouble?" The signs were for her sister; she did it as he spoke as well. "It's not her fault she can't speak. Though, I do wonder how you can understand me."

"Oh, that." She laughed. "Zoe wanted to travel. It's easier for me to learn the language than to force her to adapt to each region's signs." She stopped and looked over at her sister, before calmly signing something to her.

Zoe blushed and looked at her feet before giving an answer.

Sasha nodded. "Right. Do you mind if we swap numbers? Zoe likes you."

"Yeah, no problem," he replied. Even he had grown to like her company, cooped up in that room.

As they exchanged numbers and the girls walked away, he sent a text to the new contact. _Will you teach me how to sign?_

_Of course._

He watched as they walked off, stopping briefly to talk to Moblit. He pocketed his phone and was about to turn around head home when he noticed Zoe turn around and wave earnestly, grinning. He raised his hand in farewell before turning and walking down the sidewalk.

There was a small smile on his face.


End file.
